Theophilus and Cyrillus

Theophilus and Cyrillus
Theophilus and Cyrillus

As the evening progressed the sky became mostly clear with some ground fog adding to the light scatter and the inevitable falling temperatures of an early spring night. Nevertheless, it was good enough for some observing and sketching. Crater Theophilus (100km.) was more than 450 kilometers from the terminator but remained an attractive target in the eyepiece as the Moon cleared a nearby building in my southeast.

Theophilus is a complex Erastothenian era crater at just over 1.3 billion years in age with large central peaks of deep crustal material that formed on the rebound from the initial impact. The appearance looks fresh when compared to its much older Nectarian period neighbor Cyrillus (100 km.). It was evident while observing this pair that Cyrillus was showered with ejecta from Theophilus and prior millennia of countless strikes by incoming rocks from space. The central peaks of Cyrillus are smaller, more muted and worn down. 300 kilometers to the west of Theophilus the Apollo 16 astronauts Charles Duke and John Young collected 96 kilograms of rocks over 3 days back in 1972 which included some ejecta from the Theophilus formation.

Remote sensors on the orbital spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 detected Iron rich Magnesium –Aluminum oxides on the central peaks of Theophilus adding to the knowledge of the composition to the deep lunar crust as indicated by a publication last spring.

Two other craters included in the sketch are Mädler (29 km.) also of Erastothenian age and Ibn-Rushd (34 km.) an ancient one at more than 3.2 billion years.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: black Strathmore 400 Artagain paper 8″ x 10″, white and black Conte’ pastel pencils, a blending stump, white Pearl eraser. Contrast was slightly increased after scanning.

Telescope: 10 inch f/ 5.7 Dobsonian and 6 mm eyepiece 241X

Date: 3-30-2013; 04:30-05:35 UT

Temperature: 2° C (36° F)

Some thin clouds, calm

Seeing: Antoniadi IV poor

Colongitude 128.9 °

Lunation 18.4 days

Illumination 90.1 %

Frank McCabe

Almost Full Moon

Moon - March 25, 2013
Moon – March 25, 2013

Today’s sketch-“almost full” and a bit misted Moon. 🙂
TelescopeCapella 41cm + UWA SW 22mm, sketched in pencil, using “my favorite technique of intentional negative” and then inversionof the sketch!

Yours Robert

Sketch details:
Object Name: Almost full Moon.
Object Type: Moon.
Location: Poland, Oborniki
Date: 25-03-2013
Equipment: Newtonian telescope 409/1800 (Capella 41), and 22 mm eyepieces
Object: – Artist: Robert Twarogal (Ignisdei)

Sirsalis and Damoiseau

Sirsalis and Damoiseau Region

Sirsalis and Damoiseau Region
Hover cursor over image to view labels.

Aloha,

I submit a lunar sketch of the Sirsalis & Damoiseau region bordering Oceanus Procellarum at the western region of the Moon created almost a year ago. What a wonderful area to explore with interesting concentric craters of Damoiseau & the double crater of Sirsalis at this angle of light. Unseen Grimaldi lies in the darkness to the west.

Object: Lunar craters Sirsalis & Damoiseau @ ~13 days lunation
Telescope: 12.5” Portaball 9mm Nagler 169X
Location: Maui Hawaii, 4000 ft elevation
Date: 2/4/12 7:45pm
Medium: Black art paper, white & black charcoal

Thia (Cindy) Krach

Lunar Volcanism

Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus
Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus

Hi all,

I’ve been itching to have a go again at Alphonsus for some time. Along with its two buddies, Arzachel (to left) and Ptolemaeus (at right), this trio are a time line of Lunar history.

Ptolemaeus is the oldest. The crater floor is totally flooded, even the central peak is covered. It was fromed when the Moon was still very hot and lava readily flowed with a large impact.

Arzachel is the youngest. The crater floor is intact with no flooding, the crater walls are terraced with land slides both inside and outside of the crater.

Alphonsus sits bewteen the two in age. The crater floor is only partially flooded with the central peak still visible. The Moon has cooled since Ptolemaeus and lava flow has slowed. BUT, volcanic activity was still occuring after the flooding process had stopped. This is seen from the pyroclastic deposits that sit within Alphonsus. Four deposits lie within this crater and are marked in the labelled pic, and are seen as the darker shaded areas that are easy to see through the eyepiece.

Quite remarkable to consider that from here on Earth we can see the effects of ancient volcanism on a body that isn’t Earth.

Another treasure of the night was the Celestron Ultima LX 8mm eyepiece I used. These eyepiece are much underrated, but are surprisingly good. The 8mm in particular is easy to use for extended viewing. It made the 2.5 hours much more bearable, and my eyes were not as fatigued as they have been after with other sketches that have taken less time to do. It’s one of my favourite eyepieces.

Object: Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus
Scope: C8, 8″ SCT
Gear: 8mm Celestron Ultima LX, 250X
Location: Sydney, Australia
Date: 19th March 2013
Media: Soft Pastel, charcoal and white ink on A4 size black paper
Duration: approx 2.5 hrs

Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus - Labeled
Pyroclastic deposits in Alphonsus – Labeled

Arzachel crater

Arzachel crater
Arzachel crater

Title: Arzachel crater
My name: Silvia Fabi
Object name: Arzachel crater
Object type: crater
Location: Ferrara
Date: 18/02/2013
Media: 6B and 2B pencil
Seeing: I/II (Antoniadi scale)
Description: this crater is deep 3,6 Km and it has a diameter of 96 Km. It is near the craters Alphonsus and Ptolemaeus and is one of the most important crater of the moon.

Hipparchus, Albategnius and environs

Hipparchus, Albategnius and environs
Hipparchus, Albategnius and environs

Object Name: Moon landscape
Object Type Lunar Craters
Location Montreal, Canada
Date November 2, 2011
Media Pastel, black paper.

Here is a sketch I made on the 2nd of November between 21 :00 and 21:45 (local time in Montreal). Overlapping the terminator line, craters Hipparchus and Albategnius put on a nice show that evening. The high contrast of the landscape was propitious for a pastel sketch at the telescope. As the sun rose on the higher mountains and crater’s edge, the interplay between light and darkness slowly unveiled new features on the moon surface. I captured an incomplete “X” at the upper right.

The sketch was scanned and the legend was added with Photoshop. The sketch however has not been “retouched”. I present it as it was at the end of the session.

Jean Barbeau

Werner’s X

Werner X
Werner X

hi, we ‘re facing another long period with really bad conditions for our hobby, here in Belgium. We exactly had 2 clear nights in the past 3 months. No good at all. But we were lucky yesterday. Clear skies and … exactly when Werner’s X is about to appear. Half past ten PM (22u33) local time, the X appeared slowly. The sketch was made with Conté pastel on black paper.
Equipment used: Tele Vue 101 SDF on Tele Vue Gibraltar mount. Indeed the way Steven O’Meara used to work for his books. Tele Vue Nagler Zoom 3-6mm. No filters used.
Thanks,
/Erik

Crater Bullialdus

Crater Bullialdus
Crater Bullialdus

After observing Saturn early on the morning of 4th February, I shifted my C11 telescope to the Moon.

The 60km diameter crater Bullialdus was prominent in Mare Nubium, with stark shadows and multiple central peaks showing in this illumination. After a quick pencil sketch, I took a photograph and some time later sketched the scene, using soft pastels on white paper.

North is to the top. The two craters below Bullialdus in the centre are Bullialdus A and B respectively. Above and to the left is the large flooded crater Lubiniezky .

It was worth the effort getting up at 4am to take advantage of the excellent seeing conditions and a phase of the moon I don’t often observe.

Details:
Crater Bullialdus in Mare Nubium, C11 (280mm SCT, 2.5x Barlow)
Adelaide, South Australia, February 4th 2013, 5:00 am local time.
Soft pastels on white paper.

-Ivan

Mare Crisium Illuminated on the Young Moon

Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium – Hover mouse over image to view labels

Mare Crisium is that interesting isolated sea on the northeastern side of the visible lunar surface. Not long before beginning the sketch, it became fully illuminated.

The Nectarian Period impact event that formed this feature occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago. The mare portion of the basin is about 500 kilometers across. In the grazing sunlight on the floor, wrinkled ridges were visible. Also on the western floor craters Picard (24 km.), Peirce (19 km.) and Swift (11km.) stood out in the low light. I could see the lighter gray bench lava that partly buried craters here such as Yerkes (37 km.). Tall flat top mountains (massifs) beyond the shore stand at 2-5 kilometers above the sea. Both promontoria Lavinium and Olivium stood out clearly in very brief moments.

Sketching:

For this sketch I used: 400 series black Strathmore Artagain paper 9″x 9″, white and black Conte’
pastel pencils , and Conte’crayons, a blending stump, plastic eraser.
Telescope: 13.1 inch f/ 6 Dobsonian with 6mm (332x)
Date: 2-13 & 14-2013 23:00 – 00:45 UT
Temperature: 1.7°C (35°F)
Weather: clear, calm
Seeing: not good Antoniadi IV
Co longitude: 310.9°
Lunation: 3.69 days
Illumination: 15.7%

Frank McCabe